How Much Does it Cost to Travel Western Europe?

Updated: 05/27/18 | May 27th, 2018

Europe. It’s an expensive place and prices vary greatly depending on how far north, east, south or west your travel. Europe covers a huge area of the world with multiple visa zones and multiple currencies. For 20 euros, you can get a private room in Greece. For that same price in Paris, you may get a 16 person dorm room. You can eat for a few euros in Spain or Hungary, but a sit-down meal in Italy will cost around 15 euros, and triple that in Norway!

A trip to Europe isn’t cheap, but there are plenty of ways to cut down costs. Since Europe is so big, today I want to talk about traveling around Western Europe and the Eurozone countries.

One of the most asked questions I get is “how much does it cost to travel to Europe?”

Well, today, let’s talk about planning a trip to Europe!

How much do things cost?

Here are some general costs for things in Europe, because as I said, prices can vary a lot depending on where you are:

Accommodation: In most Western European countries, expect to pay 25–35 euros per night for a dorm room. (Though in Greece and Spain, it’s only 10–20 euros per night.) In Scandinavia, expect to pay around 30–35 Euros per night. In England, prices are usually around 20–30 pounds per night.

Transportation: The easiest way to get around Europe is by train. Trains connect every major part of Europe, and they’re often very cheap. High-speed trains, though, can cost over 100 euros. Try to get the regional or slow trains for cheaper prices! The rise of cheap airlines like Ryanair, EasyJet, and Transavia has made flying around Europe in a hurry really cheap. For flights, expect to pay around 50 euros if you book in advance. Transportation around most cities is only 1–2 euros.

Activities: Most museums and tours start at around 14 euros. It’s cheaper, of course, in eastern Europe. Full-day tours cost 35–100 euros. Prices vary drastically per country, so it’s hard to give a good general cost of this budget item.

How to Save Money in Western Europe

Picnic – Europe has a lot of tiny shops where you can be premade sandwiches or ingredients to make your own. Buy some food, eat outside, and watch the city go by. It’s a cheaper and more enjoyable way to eat.

Eat Local and Cheap – Not into picnicking? That’s OK, there are other ways to save money on food. Eat at local sandwich shops, pizza parlors, Maoz, Wok to Walks, outdoor street vendors, and the like. Avoiding restaurants and eating at a lot of the local “grab ‘n go” places will give you a taste of the local cuisine at a much cheaper price.

Couchsurf – Hostels can add up really quick in Europe. If you don’t have any friends you can stay with, consider using the service Couchsurfing, which lets you connect with locals who will let you stay with them for free.

Drink Less – Those five-euro beers really add up. Hit happy hour or pick and choose when you party. Hostel bars are a good place to get cheap drinks, or you can buy your alcohol at the supermarket. Partying your way across the continent will destroy your bank balance in no time.

Take the Free Tours – One of the great things about Europe is that you can find free walking tours in all the major cities. They can be a great way to see the city attractions, learn some history, and get your bearings without spending any money. Almost every city in Europe has a free walking tour available. Your hostel or the tourism board will have details!

Camp in a garden – A very good camping service specific is Campspace (formerly Camp in My Garden), which allows you to pitch a tent in someone’s backyard for free or a nominal fee (around 4-10 EUR). This is a new service that started in 2010 but more and more people are signing up for it each day. All of the garden owners have profiles that tell you what services and facilities they offer.

Get a Rail Pass – Eurail Passes have saved me hundreds of dollars when I used them. If you are traveling far distances and through many countries, they are a great deal. Here’s more information how to pick a Eurail pass.

Get a city tourist card – Local tourism offices issue a tourist card for all their attractions, tours, and restaurants. This card gives you free entry and substantial discounts on all the attractions and tours in a city, free local public transportation (a huge plus), and discounts at a few restaurants and shopping malls. They save a ton of money. If you plan on doing a lot of sightseeing, get one of these cards.

Rideshare – Hugely popular and widespread in Europe, I did this to get around Switzerland, France, and UK. BlaBlaCar, the biggest website, connects drivers and riders and lets you get around much cheaper than a bus or train. Moreover, this way is amazing for getting off the highways, seeing more the countryside, and meeting locals. It’s money-saving and much more exciting than taking the train or bus!

What’s a good daily budget in Europe?

Recently, I went through Amsterdam, Greece, Italy, and Hungary. In 59 days of traveling, I spent 4,317 euros, which averages out to 73.17 euros per day. That includes a few flights, many a nice meal, too many drinks on Ios, a few nights of private rooms (it was my birthday, after all!), and some unexpected purchases (a jacket, a new iPhone charger, and new headphones).

So how much does it cost to travel Europe?

On a backpacker budget, if you were avoiding flights, occasionally Couchsurfing, staying in cheap dorms, and cooking most of your meals, you could average between 40-50 Eur per day. It would be a tight budget but you could definitely do it. One of the biggest costs in Europe is accommodation so reducing that cost will help a lot!

However, if you wanted some flexibility in your schedule, planned to eat out only stay in hostels, and visit a lot of places, plan for around 70 euros a day.

If you’re going to stay in only private rooms or Airbnb as well as eat at sit down restaurants every meal, I’d say budget closer to 100 euros to be safe.

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A trip to Western Europe can cost a lot of money. It’s never going to be a cheap area of the world to travel but with some smart money management and follow the tips in this post, Western Europe can become at least an affordable place to visit. Control your costs and you can be able to see anything!

Want All My Money-Saving Tips? Get My Guide to Europe

Nomadic Matt’s Backpacking Europe My detailed, 200+ page guidebook is made for budget travelers like you! It cuts out the fluff found in other guidebooks and gets straight to the practical information you need to travel and save money while backpacking around Europe. You’ll find suggested itineraries, budgets, ways to save money, on and off the beaten path things to see and do, non-touristy restaurants, markets, and bars, and much more!!

Book Your Trip to Western Europe: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight to Western Europe by using Skyscanner or Momondo. They are my two favorite search engines. Start with Momondo.

Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel in Western Europe with Hostelworld. If you want to stay elsewhere, use Booking.com as they consistently return the cheapest rates. (Here’s the proof.)

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. I never ever go on a trip without it. I’ve been using World Nomads for ten years. You should too.

Need Some Gear? Check out our resource page for the best companies to use!

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I traveled through Europe for 9 months last year and kept very detailed records of all the money that I spent. In the end, I spent an average of about $1,247 USD per month, which breaks down to about $41 USD per day. If you are interested, you can see more details here: http://bicycletouringpro.com/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-travel-in-europe/ My most expensive months were in Switzerland and my cheapest month was in Slovenia and Croatia.

I went through your expenses and as I said in the post, there are plenty of ways to cut down your costs if you don’t eat out, drink, or go to attractions. You didn’t do any of those things or if you did, you didn’t write about them. So cutting that out would cut your budget in half. Realistically though the vast majority of travels don’t do that.

Another hugely effective way to cut down on the main expenses of travel – accommodation and transport – is to either camp or rent/buy a motorhome. Because we wanted to travel slow and for a long time we bought a motorhome, which works out to be more cost effective than renting after about the 3 month mark. Italy cost us an average of €35 per day. Although not in Europe, we wintered in Tunisia for about $19(US) per day. We often free camp to save on accommodation costs but even when we do stay in caravan parks it’s a lot cheaper. At the moment we’re in England and are paying £6.50 per night. A couple of friends of ours are touring on bikes with a tent and they also frequently free camp.

As you mentioned Matt, the GFC means now is the perfect time to travel in Europe. When we bought our motorhome we calculated how much money we saved by buying it at that time compared to 1 year ago – $5000 (US). If we had’ve bought the motorhome now we would have saved almost $9000.

Another outside-the-box kinda way to do it cheaper is to house-sit – look after someone’s home while they’re away on holidays. We spent 11 months rent-free in Australia when we were saving up to travel.

It’s not for everyone but after traveling in a motorhome I do think I’d ever do it any other way.

As I said above, if you cut out accommodation and don’t eat out, you can drastically cut down your costs. However, most travelers don’t want to cook every meal and stay in hostels so which I would say yes, a motor home and camping are cheap, most travelers want to stay in hostels so my budget includes all of that.

50 to 70 Euros still sounds expensive. One trick is to drink tap water and raw food, it really makes a difference. Many restaurants do like that a salad only with tap water is ordered but why pay for bottled water when the tap water i drinkable.

Well the traveling the Balkans is still cheap and with totally beautiful landscape.

Bosnia is an excellent country to travel.

So Matt do you couchsurf, I haven’t read any posts concerning your experience?

Also House sitting, if you have the time, can work out great if your interested in a region. Right now there are over 20 house-sitting situations available in France and more in Spain.

It could be done a bit cheaper but underbudgeting always gets you in trouble….in the past, I’ve thought “naa, I can do it cheaper” and then something has come up and my budget is blown. I say pack half as much stuff and take double the amount of money!

Whilst I haven’t been backpacking around Europe yet, my parents travel a lot and they mentioned to me France is getting very expensive now. 8Euro for a beer seemed average, not just hotels but also pub prices. Whereas Spain it’s still 2-3Euro for the same thing.

I think you just need to be clever with your budget, 70Euro is a nice amount to work off, but I feel Europe could probably be done comfortably on 50Euro a day still.

To Singaporean in London – London is one of the best connected places in Europe, it’s not too hard or expensive to get too compared to anywhere else, again, it depends a bit on research and being clever. There are a few ways to get to mainland Europe and back to London for £10, you just need to keep an eye out for offers.

England can be cheap, I’m writing this on free wifi on a greyhound to London from Portsmouth which is costing me £1 each way. The price of a shot of coffee in some places!

It’s been a few years since I traveled Europe so I can’t say much about the cost now. When I went it was really popular for Aussies/Kiwis/Saffas to tour the Europe trail in campervans. It was a lot of fun as so many of the vans followed a similar path so it was like a summer long traveling party. I travelled with 4-6 girlfriends. We rarely paid for night’s accommodation, as you would often find free camping, a lot of the time in poll position on the beach. The campervans that were there got together and cooked and drank alcohol from the supermarkets. It was a ton of fun and super cheap. Definitely not everyone’s cup of tea though as it was ultra budget- but geez did we have a good time! Our campervan died along the way, we had to move to public transport and after a day we’d had enough and bought another van from some departing Aussies at the nearest Portugese campsite. You just couldn’t beat the freedom and fun of the van travel!

I really want to go to Spain at the end of my RTW but I just don’t think I can afford it. In Central America I’m spending about $1000 a month without much scrimping but it looks like the cost would double in Spain.

I was traveling quite a bit in Western Europe for the past couple of years and I think 70 euros a day is a reasonable budget. With this budget, one can have more choices on sightseeing activities and even have the occasional night outs with nice dinner.

I’d like to add that young adults below 25 or 26 can usually get 10-30% discounts on trains. It’s also good to check for discounts and promotions on the websites of train companies because you may get a ticket for half the price.

Kind of an extension of the couchsurfing tip but… milk every connected you have! I’m heading to the UK soon for a wedding and my bank account is shaking in its boots. But I have no shame, and if you ever mentioned that you had a cousin who had an exchange student from Wales… I’m asking for the email and trying to add another city to my itinerary. Its heartwarming how many people do want to help, and I’d do the same when travelers come my way

Much of Europe is way overrated and far too expensive anyway. And in many places they really don’t like Americans, so they will try to insult you as much as they can. Chile, Peru, New Zealand, Australia are all very nice places to visit with a lot to see and do.

I hate to rain on anyone’s parade but personally I find the whole “weak euro, wohoo, great deals to be had on travel”-argument kind of silly. Generally over here in Europe we pay a lot more for pretty much everything. So even if the exchange rate is more favourable than it was a couple of months or a year back, odds are people coming over from across the pond will still feel that it’s expensive. Sure you may save a hundred or two but taking into account the total cost of the visit (probably a couple of grand) that is not really a significant amount. Sure it’s something but not really worth celebrating over. If you can afford a trip to Europe (or in my case the US) a couple of hundred saved is merely a drop in your financial ocean.

I think your argument that in order to travel to Europe you must be rich, is not true. Many people come over on tight budgets and a few hundred dollars is a lot of money to them. While it may not be to you, it is to other people and it is to those people that I say “Go now!” because they can’t afford to spend a lot so the weak Euro helps them out.

Westrern Europe is overrated. I enjoy doses of Europe, don’t get me wrong. But it’s difficult to enjoy it on a budget. Gondola rides, museum tickets, monument climbing and the like add up to 100’s per week. And that’s without eating or sleeping. Which means no gondola rides, museums or monument, but then why go to Europe?

You get WAY more bang for your buck pretty much anywhere else in the world.

This was a helpful article for me! I have finally mustered up the courage to plan a long-term trip. I’m deciding between teaching english, or just saving up and going about for a bit, first. Either way, your website will be a go-to for me on tips, advice, and know-how. I appreciate your time and knowledge and perhaps one day to have a blog of my own that people will want to read! Thank you Nomadic Matt 🙂

Hi there, just making sure does this include or exclude a eurail pass? I’m thinking of budgeting 60 euros a day with my eurail ticket already booked but the rand is so so very weak at the moment (luckily a fair bit of my savings are in pounds)

I traveled through all of scandinavia (including iceland) and then 10 other central and western European countries. Total, including flights to AND from Europe (from USA), I spent between 18-21 USD per day. I camped or stayed with people I met along the way. Never used couchsurf and only payed to sleep twice (one hostel in Iceland and one in Hungary). We ate out probably 3 times a week, otherwise bought food from supermarkets. Hitchhiking was our transportation. In the 90 days we were there, we hitched over 7,000 miles. FREE. most of our friends and places to sleep came from those who picked us up. Our actual cost of living per day was under 10 USD if you take out the flights and gifts we sent home along the way. I should add that we also were sober and vegetarian (meat and alcohol can be pricey) so that was to our advantage 🙂

Not bad Matt on the 10-20 Euros a night in Greece in Spain. Hopefully at reputable spots 😉 The more I travel the less I spend because I see; places are much less expensive than folks claim. Gotta see ’em in person and experience spots and judge for yourself.

I’ve been following your blog for a long time and love your great info. I just want to comment on your advice for taking free walking tours. Travelers should be aware that the people offering free tours are often not certified tour guides and may have no training at all or authority to give tours. Most countries have tour guide training programs and tour guides have to follow the guidelines. Just do some research and try to use a certified guide! Thanks!

Thank you for the information. Although I’m european and I usually take two-day trips within the continent, I didn’t know that you can camp in someone’s backyard! That’s a wonderful way to stay in a country. Europe can be cheap if you know (as you said) how to move within the countries: flights can be so expensive or very very cheap (I’ve travelled to Alghero with return flight from Barcelona for just 10€). Also accomodation is easy to find.